-Out of the top 30 point scorers in the league, the Caps are the only team with 4.
-Two of these guys, Green and Semin, have both played less than 70 games.
-Caps and Pit are the only two teams with 2 top-10 point-scorers.
-Green has more points than any Ranger.

great to see Avery and Hartnell, 2 perennial sandpaperish players going at it head to head at the end of the game. The Caps are going to be in for a rude awakening because they don't like to play that kind of a game but they're going to have to fight in the trenches if they want to survive this playoff season

Hershey leading the Pens farm team 3-2 heading into the 3rd pd. If the Bears win they get the top seed and face the Flyers farm team in round 1

Joe Finley has looked average so far but hopefully he gets some playoff ice time. He engaged in an early fight on his first shift and didn't do well. Then he took a hooking penalty because a forward blew past him and the Pens scored a PP goal. He's paired with Sean Collins who is a pretty steady player.

Andrew Gordon is still the most exciting player to watch on the Bears. And he had a beauty of an assist to Bouchard on the PP. Osala is a beast on the ice

Sam Rosen and Joe Micheletti said tonight during the game second period out wed thurs and sat (nbc 1:00) we'll find out soon, Off to eat my Pizza and watch NHL on the Fly on NHL Network word should break soon. Rangers looked good today against Philly. Looking forward to this series

Detroit won't do much damage this year, I think their D is finally past their "prime" :)
They should have held onto young kyle quincey, big mistake to try and sneak him thru waivers, Quincey has been great for LA this year

I see a lot of common troubling issues that occur down in Hershey that also occur in DC. There's a weird consistency that exists across both teams where its just offense offense offense offense and defense be damned

I'm not going to sit here and claim we'll suddenly have a suffocating D come next week, that would just be a load of bs and we all know it. I do think we'll tighten up a lot more much like some of our early games against Boston earlier in the year. We can hash it out all we want but I still think we'll tighten it up. Are we worse defensively than last year? Do we wish we had Huet instead of Theo? Huet who probably won't even be starting for Chicago?

so how far can a team with arguably one of the weaker defenses in the eastern conf go in the playoffs? Even if we tighten up, every team tightens up and the better regular season defensive teams will get even more stifling in the playoffs. The Rangers are a better defensive team than us. They are playing their best hockey of their season after the trade deadline, we are not. I expect their D to get even better in the playoffs and I expect us to get better as well, relative to how we're currently playing. Our skill players will have to fight thru checks and do a lot of dirty work, they won't have the luxury of having any breathing room out there. Hopefully they are upto the challenge and simplify their game a bit.

Remember, a lot of our defensive issues stem from our FORWARDS, not our D. Our D doesn't cover very well, but our forwards cough up the puck a lot in an attempt to be overly cute with the puck and it catches our defense off guard.

Early on in the season I don't think are defense was this bad. Our defense was really really good, especially at home. When they were 18-1-1 at home, Theo and Johnny had GAAs of about 2.00 and a very high save percentage, like 93%. It's kinda scary to think we did have a pretty good defense early in the season. (I'm not saying that it was great.) But now, it's a totally different story. In the months of March and April, lots of teams have been scoring on us at home, when before almost no one could. I just really hope that the defense gets it together so it doesn't cost us during a playoff game, but our defense really, really scares me, and so does Theo. The Rangers have been averaging more goals since March 4 than before March 4.

CTCapsPhan:
Way to infiltrate! :-) Non-STH seats for games 1-2 went to STH pre-sale and that sold out in minutes, but I would guess that they were holding some back. Not sure ... but I bet there will be some serious red rockin' either way!! :-D Are you coming down here for any? Didn't you get a partial STH package this season?!? Ya know, we should really be hooking each other up with tickets here/there ... I wouldn't mind a road trip!! ;-)

Posted by: --Boo-- | April 12, 2009 10:19 AM | Report abuse

Sorry, Boo. I was actually in DC visiting when I wrote that and then hit the road back home to CT.

Thanks for the intel. Little or no blue at VC. I have connections at both VC and MSG so I will be rocking the red down in DC on the weekends and up at MSG whenever they play.

Waiting on the schedule myself...seeing if I can get tickets without a season ticket plan but gotta release the schedule first.

@cs

our skill guys did pretty well in the playoffs last season against a tough, physical team. We can't forget we lost in OT of Game 7 on the PK. It's not like our guys got dominated in 4 or 5 games at all. The players seem confident they'll be more prepared for playoff hockey from the start this year (no surprise given how many of them were seeing it for the first time).

October -- had some stinkers of games. Koz was injured; Backstrom off to bad start due to ankle injury; Ovi in slump and concerned about grandfather. If not for Semin, would have been in major trouble. Barely a winning record.

Nov -- took over first place for keeps. Reeled off a bunch of wins in a row after that horrible Buffalo game. Then, had injuries and that horrible road trip in the West, climaxing with the Minnesota game where we had injuries to D-men right and left. Ended month with 2 wins and a loss over Thanksgiving weekend. Winning record for month.

Dec -- Only 3 losses that month. We got back Semin, Green, and Poti only to lose them again. This was the month of the Hershey kids.

Jan -- Began well but the second week of the month was bad, not to mention the games immediately before and after the All Star Break. Ended with the Detroit win

Feb -- Generally good, except for losses to bad teams like the Avalanche and LA Kings and that game we blew to Philthy.

March -- A bad start, with a 4 game losing streak. Things got better after that, despite a loss to the Thrashers and that loss to Carolina.

April -- 4 wins and 2 losses. Okay, one was in OT.

So, it's not like the Caps were worse at the tail end of the year. We had some bad stretches early, a wonderful December, and then plenty of ups and downs. We weren't really worse in March/April than in Oct/Nov, aside from that early skid in March.

our skill guys did pretty well in the playoffs last season against a tough, physical team. We can't forget we lost in OT of Game 7 on the PK. It's not like our guys got dominated in 4 or 5 games at all. The players seem confident they'll be more prepared for playoff hockey from the start this year (no surprise given how many of them were seeing it for the first time).

Posted by: Davethecapsfan | April 12, 2009 9:20 PM | Report abuse

You'd asked if our defense is WORSE this year than last. I would say in some critical ways, yes. I have seen more odd man rushes and breakaways this year than last. I have also seen a PP that gives up a ton of cold turkey shorthanded chances, almost two or three per game sometimes. I don't think its the personnel so much as the philosophy. We're a run and gun team. Plain and simple. And a run and gun team that doesn't have great defensive players on the blueline nor a great goalie is going to get taken advantage of. From forwards to defense, this team does not take pride in great defensive play. Before you can even start talking about the players, you have to talk philosophy.

Agreed on the philosophy v. players thoughts. I suppose the only silver lining there is philosophy is something they can actively work on as the playoffs goes on, you can't overhaul your blueline or goalie at this point.

We'll see how it goes...I'm pretty confident we'll adjust fairly quickly. Getting off to a good start at home is key.

Yeah ticketexchange is an option...last season I was just able to go through the caps website and buy 4 seats in the 200 no problem as long as I grabbed them right away. I'm hoping they held some of those for sale this year. 100 sections on exchange are a little more than I'm willing to pay.

Game 1 - Wednesday at Washington
Game 2 - Saturday at Washington
Game 3 - April 20 at Madison Square Garden
Game 4 - April 22 at Madison Square Garden
Game 5 (if necessary) April 24 at Washington
Game 6 (if necessary) April 26 at Madison Square Garden
Game 7 (if necessary) April 28 at Washington

This should be confirmed with game times within the hour. As previously noted, Game 2 will be an afternoon game.
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just getting home and looking for the f-ing schedule. Come on already!
I dont care what some Ranger pinhead thinks. Back to back games? I dont think so. Leonsis and the Caps org would have a fit. No back to backs in the playoffs.

I remember when the Caps got screwed out of home ice because of scheduling conflicts and they ended up losing the series. I think I was irate for a month. It was agaisnt Pittsburgh and our home ice advantage was basically given to the Pens. It still makes me mad. I'm angry all over again.

So I got impatient and bought a couple sets of 4 seats each on TicketExchange up in the boonies. Oh well it's the playoffs don't have to be awesome seats.

Wed and Sat for Games 1/2 sounds highly suspicious. I could see a 2 day gap when traveling between cities but not when the games are in the same town. Wed/Fri or Thurs/Sat here in DC sound far more likely I just need to know which so I can figure out who of my friends can and can't go to each.

from Tarik
The Capitals possess the league's second-most potent offense (3.27 goals per game), four players (Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green) who average more than a point a game and the second-best power play (25.2 percent). But the Rangers will counter with the sixth-best goals against average (2.58 per game) and have the top penalty kill unit (87.8 percent).

key matchup right there-- we rely heavily on our PP to win games, 5 on 5 we're average. The Rangers have the top PK unit and a great defense. How the Caps play at even strength will determine who wins this series.

we're a lot better 5 on 5 when we have balanced lines. We've looked a lot better since Flash/Nylander/Fehr started showing something. Also *nods to cs* since we have had Aucoin up and Brash out of the lineup so 4 lines are actually generating chances.

@boo

Yeah I did check, max of 2 tickets through the normal site and anything decent was sold out. Screw it I have tickets that's all I care about. I went to Games 1/2/7 last year and was mad as hell I missed Game 5. Vowed this year to try to attend every home game.

The 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs will begin on Wednesday, April 15, with four games -- three in the Eastern Conference and one in the West.

In the East, the New York Rangers will open their series against Washington, Carolina will be at New Jersey and Philadelphia will visit Pittsburgh on opening night, while in the West, St. Louis will play its first playoff game since 2004 when it opens its series at Vancouver.

One night later, the Eastern Conference champion Boston Bruins open the other East quarterfinal against Montreal. In the West, Presidents' Trophy winner San Jose opens against Anaheim, Detroit opens defense of its Stanley Cup championship by hosting Columbus -- which will be playing the first postseason game in franchise history -- and Calgary will visit Chicago.

The Carolina-New Jersey, Philadelphia-Pittsburgh and St. Louis-Vancouver series all continue on April 17, 19 and 21st. The Rangers and Capitals will take an extra day before playing Game 2 on April 18 at 1 p.m. before a national TV audience on NBC. That series then moves to New York for games on April 20 and 22.

The Montreal-Boston and Calgary-Chicago series will also resume on April 18, with Games 3 and 4 on April 20 and 22. Game 2 in the Columbus-Detroit series is on April 18, with Games 3 and 4 at Columbus on April 21 and 23. Anaheim and San Jose play Game 2 on April 19, then move to Anaheim on April 21 and 23.